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June 19, 2011

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Freshly crowned Nevada GOP congressional nominee Mark Amodei is wasting no time attempting to set the terms of debate in the special House election, launching a provocative 30-second ad Monday that ponders a Chinese takeover of the United States.

The advertisement, which will air in the Reno market, features a Chinese newscaster in the future explaining how raising the debt limit ensured the communist country's climb to power.

"Their President Obama just kept raising the debt limit and their independence became a new dependence. As their debt grew, our fortune grew and that is how our great empire rose again," says the female newscaster with a thick accent.

The indelible image: the Chinese army marching on the U.S. Capitol.

The spot then quickly cuts to an image of Amodei before the capitol building, promising to "never vote to raise Obama's debt limit and risk our independence."

Republican consultant Rob Stutzman, who crafted the ad, said the spot is meant to land the first marker in the race before the Democrats officially select a candidate.

"We're moving forward as the nominee regardless of what the Nevada Supremes do in a couple weeks," he said, referring to the pending court decision about whether the September special will be open to all candidates or just those chosen by their parties.

Jay Parmer, a longtime Nevada public affairs hand with deep ties to the first President Bush and Gov. Haley Barbour, is running Amodei's campaign. Former Republican Governors Association operative Chris Henick will serve as senior strategist. John McLaughlin will do the polling and Stutzman will handle media and messaging.

It's anticipated that Democrats will select State Treasurer Kate Marshall as their nominee this Saturday.

Please visit http://rexricksforcongress.blogspot.com
too see the charts that this letter mentions.
The video is premised on appealing to people's xenophobic fears of a Chinese takeover of our country. When people are filled with fear, they react in lizard brain mode and do not think critically, and then they VOTE! Before anybody from any party goes to vote, they should have done their homework and thoroughly researched the issues and the candidates, and make an informed decision, rather than reacting out of fear.
Mark Amodei concludes the ad by saying he will NEVER vote to raise the debt limit for Obama. Really? Never? Is it only because of partisan reasons that Amodei takes this inflexible pledge? Is simply having a Republican POTUS all it takes for Amodei to show any flexibility on the debt limit? Judging by history this appears to be the case. One must ask what other issues will Amodei oppose Obama on simply for the sake of opposition itself, as opposed to actually evaluating each of Obama's proposals individually on their own merit.
Take a look at this chart and one will see that only 3 votes have been cast by GOP Senators to raise the debt limit while President Barack Obama has been in office. While on the other hand, there were a total of 275 votes cast by GOP Senators while President George W. Bush was in office.
Breaking this down by averages, every time there was a vote to raise the debt limit under Obama there is an average of just one GOP Senator to raise the debt limit. Contrast this with 8 occasions to raise the debt ceiling under Bush, there was average of 34 GOP Senators that voted yes. So what Amodei and the Republican leadership are saying is that Republican debt is good while Democrat debt is bad. Former vice president Dick Cheney once opined "Deficits don't matter." I don't recall one Republican ever countering this statement. Now that Obama is in office, the Republicans suddenly get religion on deficits.
With all that being said, I do agree with Amodei that the massive deficit is problematic. However, Amodei gave no proposals on how he would reduce the deficit. One must ask will he be an independent maverick Republican with his own ideas? Or, will he march in lockstep with the current GOP leadership and support their proposals which would actually exacerbate our current deficit?
Specifically, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan has proposed a radical revision of the tax code that would not only cause Malthusian growth of the current deficit, but soak the middle and lower class with ADDITIONAL TAXES while simultaneously giving the upper class superfluous tax breaks. Then there will be no choice left but to raise the debt ceiling, which Republicans claim to be against. As it is, wealthy corporations are already hoarding trillions of dollars and not creating jobs. Wasn't it Speaker John Boehner who asked "Mr. President, where are the jobs?" I must ask in return, "Mr. Speaker, where are the jobs?"
As one can see, anyone UNDER $127,769 will see a TAX INCREASE while anyone above that amount gets a cut. My proposal to reduce the deficit would be to repeal the Bush tax cuts for those making above $150,000. Also, the capital gains tax should be raised above the current 15% level. Contrast that with the top 35% rate that one is taxed on labor. In fact, the IRS has stated that the top 400 earners only average a 17% rate for their income taxes. The world's 3rd richest man, Warren Buffett has mentioned that his own secretary is taxed at a higher percentage than he is!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece